AI is coming for your job - Adam Scholey, Benefex

AI systems are pattern recognizers that generate probabilistic outputs - they don’t truly understand or reason like humans do

Quality and accuracy of AI outputs tend to decrease as models are retrained on their own output (“model collapse”), highlighting the ongoing need for human-generated training data

Key human advantages over AI include:

• Emotional intelligence and empathy
• Critical thinking and ethical judgment
• Ability to handle ambiguity and complex situations
• Cross-disciplinary knowledge integration
• Strategic decision-making

Imposter syndrome can be leveraged as a strength in the AI era by:

• Encouraging continuous learning
• Promoting humility and careful verification
• Driving improved communication and collaboration
• Building psychological safety in teams

AI tools should augment rather than replace human developers:

• Automating repetitive tasks
• Reducing cognitive load
• Enabling faster prototyping
• Leaving strategic and creative work to humans

Successful software engineering in the AI era requires:

• Prioritizing wellbeing and psychological safety
• Adopting a growth mindset
• Maintaining human oversight of AI outputs
• Building cross-disciplinary expertise
• Focusing on uniquely human skills

Studies show potential downsides of over-reliance on AI coding tools:

• Increased code churn
• More duplicate code
• Decreased code quality
• Less original problem-solving